CURRICULUM VITAE - TIM FLETCHER

Timothy Jack Fletcher							Date of Birth: 21/12/79

Email: cv@jaxtrasi.com

Please contact me via email if you require additional contact details.

Education
1999-2003	Edinburgh University
1996-1998	New College, Swindon
1990-1996	Hreod Parkway School (sic)

Qualifications
BEng Software Engineering, First Class (Honours)
ISEB Foundation in Software Testing
Four A-level: Mathematics (B), Computing (B), Psychology (B), Further Mathematics (D)
Nine GCSE: Double Science (A*, A*), English Language (A), English Literature (A), Mathematics (A), History (A), Art (B), Technology (C), German (C)

Current Employment

Summer 2007-Present
Software Developer
EDINA

Employment History

2003-2007	
Research Studentship (motivation behind game playing)
Institution of Communicating and Collaborative Systems
Edinburgh University

Summer 2002
Scripter and Interface Designer
Edinburgh Virtual Environment Centre

Summer 2000
Systems Tester
Zurich Financial Services, Swindon (through Adecco Employment Agency)

July 1998 - July 1999 (Year out before University)
Systems Administrator
Economic and Social Research Council

January 1997 – July 1998
Games and Retail assistant
Spot On Models, Swindon

Employment History (details)

Software Developer
At EDINA I work on a family of Java web services, “Digimap”, developing, maintaining and testing services to deliver complex Ordnance Survey map data in a user-friendly format to academic departments. The service has 30,000 active users and is expected to maintain (and maintains) higher than 99% uptime. Since coming to EDINA I have had to pick up and work with Apache, Tomcat, Maven, SVN, J2EE, JSP, XML and SQL.

Research Studentship
During my studentship I studied the question of why different people have different tastes in computer games (which extended into broader questions about why people have different tastes at all). This involved conducting face-to-face interviews, transcription coding and data analysis. During this period I assisted my supervisor with a number of “Game Maker Workshops” – summer school classes for children, teaching them to make games using the Neverwinter Nights toolset. I also learned that during a crisis – when a lot needs to be done right now – I am at my best.

Scripter and Interface Designer
Summer job developing an interface for the Tacitus project. Tacitus is a project to develop a user-friendly 3D design tool for the Reachin haptics device. I developed the initial design and implementation of a 3D interface. The project was written using the Python scripting language which I had no prior experience with. The video at http://www.edvec.ed.ac.uk/html/projects/tacitus/index.html shows the interface I designed.

Systems Tester
Summer job testing Zurich’s new “Electronic Trading” system. This involved a lot more responsibility than I expected, as we were given certain targets and then left to get on with it. Eventually I adopted an unofficial leadership role amongst the other student testers, helping to assign the work.

Systems Administrator
During my year at ESRC I worked the IT Helpdesk, providing software support remotely and in person. I showed an aptitude for demonstrating the use of software and was given the formal role of providing initial software training for new employees. I completed training courses in Customer Care and Telephone Techniques.

Degree Course (details)

I completed two years of Computer Science before specialising in Software Engineering. During this time I studied courses on: Software Engineering, Computer Hardware, Compilers, Mathematics, Programming, Logic, Human Communications, Electronics and the History of Science. As part of the course I spent four years working with Java, and also worked with HTML, PHP, C, SML and SQL. We also completed two large group projects and several smaller ones, during each of which I took a strong leadership role. We were offered a choice as Software Engineers of whether to graduate with a BEng or a BSc. The degree is exactly the same in either case.

Games Experience

Technologies

I have modded for Half-Life 2 using C++  for several years, building prototype test levels in Hammer and making heavy alterations to the game mechanics. I have worked with Java (mostly on web services) for many years, and I am intimately familiar with NeverwinterScript and the Neverwinter Nights toolset. I have previous substantial experience modding for Deus Ex using the Unreal Tournament generation of the Unreal Game Engine, both using UnrealEd to construct geometry and heavy alteration of the interface and game mechanics. I transferred this experience to the Unreal 2 generation of the Unreal Game Engine before migrating that project to Half-Life 2.

Simbiosys

A mod for Half-Life 2 (and originally started in Unreal 2), Simbiosys is a rhythm-action FPS. Simbiosys is intended to take advantage of its mod status by making brave design choices that would probably not be possible in a professional title. As a Half-Life 2 mod, Simbiosys is built using Hammer and coded in C++. I worked on Simbiosys as a designer and lead programmer.

The premise of Simbiosys is that everything that makes sound happens in time with the beat. Games such as Rez make this happen by being on rails, but making an FPS where the player can freely move around imposes design restraints. For example, all doors open as the player approaches, but do so in time. Because it is based on the Source engine, objects have physics, but if they fell or moved they would make noise out of time. As such, the player absorbs nearby objects in the manner of Total Annihilation or Hostile Waters.

A playable technical demo of the mod, which serves as a proof-of-concept of the rhythm/action premise including the gun and doors, can be downloaded here:
 
http://www.simulatedbiologicalsystem.com/simbiosys.zip

In the meantime, I have been working on a detailed background setting for the mod in the form of a faux wiki, supposedly written by people in 2070. This represents my largest body of written setting work, and can be found here:

http://www.simulatedbiologicalsystem.com/saschawiki/

The Cassandra Project

My first modding experience, the Cassandra Project (TCP) was one of the only Deus Ex mods ever released. Working with PC Gamer and Eurogamer writer Kieron Gillen, I started as a designer and ended up as lead programmer, responsible for implementing the interface, changes to the weapons and augmentations and the mechanical changes. I designed new lockpicking and hacking systems to replace the default Deus Ex implementation.

Cassandra was a great project to work on, and it taught me a lot about working with other developers – we had a definite “too many cooks” situation, with each member wanting to take too strong a design role. I have since recognised that our role in that situation should have been to understand and support the project lead’s vision, rather than push our own agendas. In the face of these difficulties, Cassandra was released and well-received by the TTLG online community.

The mod’s website can be found here:

http://www.deusex-machina.com/cassandra-project/

The hosting is sometimes unstable. The mod can also be downloaded directly from Fileshack:

http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=3247

Abbott Shout

An entertaining mod for World of Warcraft, Abbott Shout is a huge repository of battle cries and taunts designed for use with the warrior class’s “Battle Shout”, “Demoralising Shout”, “Taunt” etc skills. The mod uses the zone and creature target information to derive a demographic type for the creature (for example, a skeletal warrior of the Scourge) and randomly selects an appropriate insult which is played when the “Taunt” skill is activated. Abbott Shout is written in Lua.

Maugeter

Maugeter is an ambitious single-player RPG made using Neverwinter Nights (NWN) I worked on alone as designer, writer and programmer. With Maugeter I set out to produce something on the scale of a professional RPG, and with around 20 hours of play, it largely succeeded. Maugeter was designed from the start to emphasise character choice and de-emphasise the repetitive combats that typify even the heavily story-based examples of the genre. It uses an innovative system of experience reward to ensure that the player always encounters appropriate challenges. 

The game includes around 50 quests, some mandatory and some optional. Some of the quests are as large and involved as smaller NWN modules in their own right, but integrated together into a coherent setting. The quests span a huge range of themes and styles, including court cases, negotiations, haunted houses, dungeons, mysteries, zombie hordes, investigations, battles, troubleshooting, bounty hunting, puzzle solving, hunts and chases.

Maugeter has a strong focus on non-combat. You spend longer on non-combat tasks such as exploration, dialogue and investigation than you do fighting, which is time-consuming and difficult to develop and therefore rare in professional games. The module includes over 120,000 words of interactive dialogue, around the length of two novels, as well as numerous further descriptive text scattered throughout.

To create a range of elemental creatures necessary for the setting, I hand-edited particle emitters. These were later judged to be of high enough quality to be included in the high-profile Community Expansion Pack,endorsed by Bioware. I also edited and created numerous other models, emitters and textures including customisable imps wearing clothes.

Like all NWN mods, Maugeter is primarily written using NeverwinterScript, a proprietary scripting language which has almost as much power as Python and almost as much usability as C++.

The module requires an patched copy of Neverwinter Nights to play (I own several spare copies and can provide one if necessary) but does not require any of the expansions. The module is hosted at the Neverwinter Vault:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=5364

Murder in the Magic Kingdom

A university project, Murder in the Magic Kingdom is a Neverwinter Nights module on a much smaller scale than Maugeter. It uses an innovative narrative structure to allow the player to experience a non-linear murder mystery with a dramatic narrative arc and conclusion. In this game, the player visits and interviews each of the suspects, who each have a slightly randomised opinion and descriptive appearance. The player is asked to judge the identity of the murderer based on these clues, and their first choice is always wrong, because a new clue is introduced at this stage making their guilt impossible. Whoever the player names second always turns out to be the murderer. This was a proof-of-concept prototype for a notion of adjusting the plot as the player proceeds in order to make a more dramatic story.

Card Games

I have substantial experience designing card games, which I believe to be relevant when working on computer games as although the interface is very different, the fundamental mechanical design is often very similar and involves similar design considerations.

Combined Arms

A fast-paced four player war game soon to be published by The Giant Brain, Combined Arms uses an innovative twist on the classic scissors-paper-stone of infantry, artillery and tanks in a game which suits itself equally well to destructive, thoughtless chaos in the pub or careful, strategic deliberation depending on the player group.

Table Talk

A riotous game which simulates the social struggle that takes place around the gaming table. Yes, you won the game, technically, but I got so many insults in that you’re taking it as a loss! Table Talk has been banned from Edinburgh’s only independent board games shop because of the uncontrollable, noisy laughter it consistently produces.

Blade Warrior

Blade Warrior is a simple fantasy quest game where the players use skill cards to customise their warrior, and build a sword from component parts. Players then complete quests in order to earn experience and treasure using a straightforward dice-based combat system. Described by one player as “like D&D with all the boring bits taken out”.

Underworld Overlord

Underworld Overlord is the Dungeon Keeper-style sequel to Blade Warrior, and uses similar mechanics. Players take the role of ancient Demon Knight spirits, and put together an army of evil creatures that they lead on slave raids with the ultimate aim of reincarnating themselves and controlling the world.

Pub Brawl

A combo-building card game based loosely on Lunch Money where the players have to knock out as many pub-dwelling denizens as they can with brutal attacks and whatever tools they find lying around before the cops arrive to break up the fight.

Writing

I have had one game design article published in the Game Maker supplement of PC Format issue 163, July 2004. A pdf copy of the article can be downloaded here:

http://halogensunlight.co.uk/~tim/game_maker_article_tim_fletcher.pdf 

I maintain a small archive of game design essays here:

http://halogensunlight.co.uk/lavalamp/viewforum.php?f=34